Visiting North Korea #
This Correspondent’s Diary has a number of interesting tidbit about traveling to North Korea with the New York Philharmonic, but I found this one especially interesting:
The most delighted response is to the final encore, a piece of Korean folk music called Arirang. On both sides of the Korean divide this song evokes a longing for unity. By playing it on this occasion the Americans appear to challenge one of the main tenets of North Korean propaganda: that Americans want a divided peninsula. Of all the pieces played tonight, this one is most likely to give pause for thought among Pyongyang officials. The State Department, which has been backing the Philharmonic all the way with this trip, would very much approve of the choice (if it wasn’t actually made by people in or close to the administration).